Fringe areas record real estate boom, Kolhapur lags

KOLHAPUR: The fringe areas of Kolhapur have recorded more real estate growth than the heart of the city, reveal statistics available with the sub-registrar office where all sale deals are registered. Riding high on lower rates, the fringe areas have reported higher percentage of sales deals of properties, primarily flats and plots than those in the core city area.

Data compiled between April and November last year indicate that areas such as Ujalaiwadi, Balinge, Unchgaon, Padalikhurd, Bhuye, Pachgaon, Sarnaubatwadi, Morewadi and Kalamba have reported a higher percentage of growth in property sale agreement registration. While all wards and zones in the city have reported growth in the bracket of 16-18% compared to its previous year's figures, the fringe aeas have reported a healthy 20-58% growth, Kolhapur district registrar Sanjiv Mule said.

"Affordability is the driving force of people buying houses and flats on the outskirts," said Girish Raibage, president of the Kolhapur unit of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (Credai), the apex body of real estate developers across the country.

The fringe areas are located around 8-13 km from the heart of the city such as peth areas, market areas such as Laxmipuri, Mahadwar road and district government establishments. Those who have shifted to the outskirts in the past few years have sited quiet life, away from pollution and availability of open space as some of the factors leading to their change in address. Raibage said the state government's norms have put a restriction on floor space index on the fringe areas, which are mostly governed by gram panchayats. Lower property tax, availability of water through the gram panchayat scheme or bore well, sufficient supply of power and fairly good connectivity with the city have prompted the people to buy houses away from the city areas. Interestingly, the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation has moved a proposal to the state government to include all these fringe villages into its limits and make those its part. These villages have now turned into residential pockets paying tax to local gram panchayats, and not the KMC, but using most facilities provided by the corporation.

Morewadi, a village towards the south of the city, has reported 58% rise in property deals between April-November 2013, the highest in the district. It has reported a registration of 118 property deals during the period. Many real estate developers are also eyeing the fringe areas because of the availability of open space and scope for development.

Sources in the industry said developing a property in the city areas is a tedious job as builders have to deal with local traffic, regulations, over use of heavy commercial vehicles, complaints of noise pollution from tneighbourhood and hurdles created by local groups. Space constraint is another problem in the city areas. The plus point of construction in the city areas is high returns. Redevelopment projects are also not picking up, because of the issues of tenants and expectations of existing flat owners, a source said.

The Ward A of KMC (old areas like Shivaji Peth and Mangalwar peth) and Ward E are the only two wards out of the total five where number of property deals registered with the sub-registrar office of the state government are 1,637 and 1,827, respectively, between April and November last year. But the growth compared to the previous corresponding period was 16% and 18%, respectively. The rest of the locations and zones in the city areas have reported sale deals ranging between 9 and 732 with an average growth rate of 17%.

The fringe areas such as Ujalaiwadi, Balinge, Unchgaon, Padali-khurd, Bhuye, Pachgaon, Sarnaubatwadi, Morewadi and Kalamba have reported property sale registration with an average growth rate of more than 20%. The ready recknor rates in the fringe areas have been increased from Rs 700 sq mt to Rs 2,000 sq mt, while the ready recknor rates in the city areas are up from Rs 2,450 per sq.mt to Rs 4,800 sq.mt.The buyer has to pay a stamp duty of 5% of the value of the property sale agreement to the government along with registration fee. The duty would naturally go up in the city areas than that of in fringe areas, said Mule.

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